News, Views and Analysis

Scheer infamy: anything goes

As expected, Harper’s housepet in the Speaker’s chair has rejected Elizabeth May’s point of order of June 4 on C-38, the government’s kitchen-sink omnibus budget Bill.

The incalculable harm to Parliament that Scheer has just inflicted may well be seen by future historians as pivotal. Canada has just taken another lurching, zombie-like step towards effective rule by decree.

The Speaker addresses a number of points, but this is really the crux of his ruling:

If the long title had been specific and limited in scope, then the hon. Member might have had a sounder basis for claiming that the Bill goes beyond what was contained in the Budget. However, the title of Bill C-38 is wide in scope, and therefore, it is an accepted practice that the content of the Bill could be similarly broad.

Ponder this for a moment. Carte blanche is here given for the introduction in future of one colossal Bill per parliamentary session, under a title like “The What’s Good For Canada Bill.” Such legislation, passing like lightening through a greased Committee to the report stage, would be accompanied by the imposition of time allocation upon the Opposition to prevent serious debate of its multifarious provisions.

Today parliamentary democracy has received a life-threatening wound. Must Canada wait until 2015 for the surgery it requires?